Located in the centre of the North Cyclades, Giaros has long been a no-go destination. Before it became a military base it was used as another of those islands of exile that litter this part of the world.

The island was particularly notorious during the rule of the military junta 1967-74, when a number of prominent dissidents were imprisoned here (at least, they were given the bricks and told to make a prison).

Now declared to be a historic site deserving state protection by the Greek Minister for Culture, it is shortly to be protected by a presidential decree banning further military activity.

Hopefully this means that Giaros will become a day-trip destination from the neighbouring islands of Andros, Tinos and Syros, but as the island remains something of an unknown quantity, it is difficult to say what day-trippers could hope to see beyond the empty jail complex, though it could be marketed as the Greek Alcatraz.